\n H\u00e9ctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Ni\u00f1o Guerrero, was credited with transforming a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational operation with tentacles stretching through large swathes of Latin America, the United States and even across the Atlantic to Spain.\n <\/p>\n
\n Guerrero, who was listed as a most wanted fugitive by US Immigration and Custom Enforcement, was killed in \u201ca swift and lethal kinetic strike,\u201d Trump announced Friday evening on Truth Social<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n His post included a video showing a green roofed building disappearing under a cloud of billowing smoke caused by a massive explosion.\n <\/p>\n \n The preside\ufeffnt said the strike was \u201ccoordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n It was conducted earlier this week in collaboration with Venezuelan security forces, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth lated added on X<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Venezuela\u2019s government said the joint operation involved intelligence sharing and specialized technical support.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cDuring the operation, clashes occurred with members of these criminal structures, resulting in the death of H\u00e9ctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias \u201cNi\u00f1o Guerrero,\u201d the leader of a criminal organization,\u201d the country\u2019s communications ministry said a statement.\n <\/p>\n \n US Southern Command Commander Gen. Francis Donovan said the joint operation had targeted \u201ca Tren de Aragua compound,\u201d in a statement on X<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The Tren de Aragua gang was founded inside Tocor\u00f3n prison in Venezuela\u2019s Aragua state, from which it draws its name.\n <\/p>\n \n The gang controlled the prison \u2013\u2013 even building a swimming pool and restaurants inside<\/a> \u2013\u2013 until the Venezuelan government reclaimed it in October 2023. But Guerrero, then meant to be an inmate, wasn\u2019t found and had been on the run since.\n <\/p>\n \n The US State Department offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture in late 2024.\n <\/p>\n \n Then in December, the US Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York charged Guerrero<\/a> with ordering, directing and facilitating acts of terrorism within the US.\n <\/p>\n \n At the time, US Attorney Jay Clayton described him as the \u201cmastermind of Tren de Aragua\u2019s evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organization.\u201d (Clayton has since been nominated by Trump to serve as the Director of National Intelligence<\/a>).\n <\/p>\n \n That announcement was part of a massive pressure campaign<\/a> against Venezuela, its leaders and the drug cartels that operate within the country.\n <\/p>\n \n For years, Tren de Aragua \u2013 also known as \u201cTdA\u201d \u2013 not only terrorized Venezuela but also countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Peru.\n <\/p>\n \n And the gang has slowly spread its reach to the US and even to Spain, where Guerrero\u2019s brother was arrested in March 2024, leading police to identify the first suspected cell of Tren de Aragua in the country.\n <\/p>\n \n Retired Gen. \u00d3scar Naranjo, former vice president of Colombia, once called the gang \u201cthe most disruptive criminal organization operating nowadays in Latin America.\u201d<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n The full scale of its operations is unknown. While the gang has principally focused on human trafficking and other crimes targeting migrants, it has also been linked to extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and drug smuggling, according to the US Department of the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control<\/a> (OFAC).\n <\/p>\n \n The group adopted its name between 2013 and 2015 but its operations predate that, according to a report by Transparency Venezuela<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n One challenge for law enforcement officials is knowing how many members of Tren de Aragua are already in the US. Some Venezuelan immigrants in Florida and other states say they are beginning to see the same type of criminal activity they fled in Venezuela; but Insight Crime, a think tank dedicated to organized crime said in October 2025 that Tren de Aragua\u2019s \u201creputation appears to have grown more quickly than its actual presence in the United States.\u201d<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n Near the beginning of his second term, Trump designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization.\n <\/p>\n \n Last March, his administration sparked controversy with its move to deport<\/a> more than 200 people, some of whom it alleged were members of Tren de Aragua, to an infamous maximum-security prison in El Salvador<\/a> \u2013 even though officials provided scant evidence of gang involvement and many of the deportees denied being linked to the group.\n <\/p>\n \n Starting around last September, the Department of Defense began targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats operating around the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, with some of the vessels linked to the gang.\n <\/p>\n \n More than 200 people have been killed in strikes<\/a> on those boats. The Trump administration has not provided public evidence of the presence of narcotics on the boats struck, nor their affiliation with drug cartels.\n <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/still-22713078-202-273-still.jpg\")
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